Hurricane Barbara: Satellite captures incredible footage of huge storm and solar eclipse
HURRICANE Barbara has intensified into a major category 4 hurricane on Tuesday, coinciding with a solar eclipse.
Incredibly, a satellite captured the rare event, as the solar eclipse stretched across South America and the hurricane churned near the southern tip of Baja California. The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory on the major storm, which could pass Hawaii as a weaker hurricane on Wednesday. As of Tuesday night, the storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155mph (150km/h).
The National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted a video of the eclipse and hurricane with the caption: “Not too often you catch a Category 4 hurricane and a solar eclipse occurring in the same satellite loop.”
Thanks to the NWS, we’re able to view the rare event coupled with a major hurricane from a new perspective.
In South America, thousands turned out to see the rare total solar eclipse in Chile.
Crowds watching in the region of Coquimbo in Chile cheered as darkness descended during a total eclipse of the sun.
In this view from #GOESWest, you can see the moon's shadow over the Pacific Ocean as the #TotalSolarEclipse makes its way toward South America. More imagery: https://t.co/aHnIqKeF9t pic.twitter.com/8zuupZOXV1
— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) July 2, 2019
Not too often you catch a Category 4 hurricane and a solar eclipse occurring in the same satellite loop. pic.twitter.com/eFze8Z3avp
— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) July 2, 2019
The Moon's great shadow, or umbra, then passed over the Andes and across to Argentina.
The rest of Chile, as well as Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, and parts of Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama, witnessed a partial eclipse.
Hurricane Barbara is the first major hurricane of the 2019 season.
It kicks off what the NWS expects to be an “above-normal” hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific, with a likelihood of four to eight major hurricanes.
While the storm is incredibly powerful, it isn’t threatening land at this stage.
Hawaii could experience some stormy conditions as the outskirts of the hurricane pass by, but no warnings have yet been issued.
CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said: “It is not a threat to any landmass in the next several days.
“But it did rapidly intensify into a powerful Category 4 with 140-mile-per-hour winds.”
He said Hurricane Barbara is moving northeast at 13 mph, away from land, into the open ocean.